Advanced Lighting & Sound installs multiple FOR-A HVS-300HS HD/SD switchers at Kensington Church campuses
Jul 16, 2010 2:32 PM
Kensington Community Church is using FOR-A’s HVS-300HS video switcher.
Advanced Lighting & Sound, based in Troy, MI, recently installed multiple FOR-A HVS-300HS HD/SD digital video switchers at the campuses of Kensington Community Church. As a nondenominational church with about 10,000 attendees per Sunday and growing, its video production tasks demand switchers that allow for the flexibility of a growing church while also being user-friendly for the volunteer teams who run them.
Kensington Church currently has five campuses in Michigan: Troy, Rochester Hills, Clinton Township, Birmingham and Lake Orion. Three of the five campuses use the HVS-300HS switchers with one of those currently using the FOR-A gear in a multicamera setup that includes JVC’s GY-HD250 camera. Plans are in place to implement additional FOR-A switchers at the other campuses this fall. One of the fall implementations is going to include Kensington’s first national campus in Orlando, FL.
At each location, one switcher uses a traditional, full-sized control panel, while the second switcher is controlled through a compact panel attached to the front of the rack-mounted main unit. “We have two different well-produced, switched feeds going on at the same time,” said Jeff Reynolds, video operations director at Kensington Church. “The main switcher is used to feed the screen on the stage. The smaller, in-rack switcher is secondary and is used to feed the building.”
Production at each of the campuses varies, but it usually consists of between one and three on-stage projection displays with a modulated feed that ties into the building’s RF network for remote viewing in other areas of a particular campus. Kensington Church currently produces its video coverage in SD, but Reynolds said the campuses will be ready for the eventual move to HD with its FOR-A switchers.
Each switcher’s configuration can be saved to a USB flash drive, so if there’s a mishap on a Sunday morning, the original configuration can be easily recalled. “Among the different campuses, everyone is working off the same configuration, so the support of the product and systems have been straightforward, since everything is standardized and easily maintained,” said Advanced Lighting & Sound’s Bob Sullivan.
During the school year, the video systems are stored in trailers during the week. “Considering they are bounced in and out of trailers in road cases every Sunday, we’re very impressed with the integrity and consistency of the FOR-A gear,” Reynolds said. “The HVS-300HS switchers are very solid units.”
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